Here is a thought experiment that illustrates the slipperiness of instrumental rationality: Let’s say there is a world everyone is respected according to their (ELO ranked) chess ability and nothing else. In this world your ability to make friends, earn a high salary, etc. all depend on how well you play chess. Should somebody who is better at playing chess be considered more instrumentally rational in this world?
My definition says yes, because chess playing is an ability that resides in the brain. If you define instrumental rationality as “ability to make choices with high expected value” or some such, that definition says yes as well because playing chess is a series of choices. You can imagine a hypothetical Flatland-weird universe where making good choices depends more on the kind of skills required to play chess and less on probabilistic reasoning, calculating expected values, etc. In this world the equivalent of Less Wrong discusses various chess openings and endgame problems in order to help members become more instrumentally rational.
Here is a thought experiment that illustrates the slipperiness of instrumental rationality: Let’s say there is a world everyone is respected according to their (ELO ranked) chess ability and nothing else. In this world your ability to make friends, earn a high salary, etc. all depend on how well you play chess. Should somebody who is better at playing chess be considered more instrumentally rational in this world?
My definition says yes, because chess playing is an ability that resides in the brain. If you define instrumental rationality as “ability to make choices with high expected value” or some such, that definition says yes as well because playing chess is a series of choices. You can imagine a hypothetical Flatland-weird universe where making good choices depends more on the kind of skills required to play chess and less on probabilistic reasoning, calculating expected values, etc. In this world the equivalent of Less Wrong discusses various chess openings and endgame problems in order to help members become more instrumentally rational.